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7 Things you don’t know about me

But after reading this, you will (if you are interested, of course). I’ve been asked by the charming Julie Haiselden (@juliehaiselden) to contribute to her Beautiful Bloggers thread https://jhbooksblog.wordpress.com/, so here’s my contribution – I have to list 7 things you don’t know about me.

I was once woken up by an earthquake in Santiago, Chile. Went downstairs, got talking for hours to a chap who was also scared and didn’t want to go back to his hotel room. We exchanged business cards, and later on when I looked at his, turned out he was the Vice President of 20th Century Fox. I’m still waiting for my callback! 🙂

About 30 years ago (oo-er, doesn’t time fly) I was a blackjack and roulette dealer working in the Ritz Casino in London. Here’s a photo of me and some of my fellow croupiers – get the 1980s big hair and Dynasty-type outfits, ha!

I once told Steven Tyler of Aerosmith to get his hands off me. Yes, really!!! He approached to hug me, backstage. Well, who needs to do the groupie fan thing?! It made him laugh – I suppose it made a change.

In my later years in London I spent my Sundays volunteering for a charity that delivered dinner to housebound Aids sufferers. I recommend doing something for others as a substitute for therapy – now, hear me out on this one! I started this when I was depressed, lonely and looking for something to do. At the end of the day I skipped down the street feeling much better. So, what I’m saying is, even if you do it for ‘selfish’ reasons, volunteer anyway, because the charity and recipients don’t care why you do it, the end result is the same, everyone benefits.

I spent a year learning Norwegian. This was because I was working for the manager of A-ha, and I had to go around the world with them on promotion etc. As you probably know, pretty much all Norwegians speak good English, but I got fed up with not understanding what they were saying to each other!

I am eternally grateful that I was accepted into Durham University in the late 1970s. It was like being at university in the 1950s, all gowns and sherry parties with one’s moral tutor! Yes, we were each assigned a moral tutor, and mine was called Henry Tudor, much to my amusement. Not quite sure what they were supposed to tutor us about, though. To live in this beautiful city for 3 years was a great blessing.

And for my 7th ‘thing’, I shall say (if Julie will forgive me!) that I will not be nominating 7 other bloggers because I am not a ‘real blogger’, since I put up posts so rarely; not being a creative type I’m hardly ever able to think of anything to write about, so I don’t think I should call myself a blogger when there are writers out there. I’m indebted to Julie for asking me to take part, and thank you for taking the time to read this; I hope it’s entertained you in some small way.

You’ve led a very rich and interesting life so far and I’m grateful you accepted my invitation and shared some fascinating facts with us all. It’s lovely to get to know you a bit better. This is a great blog!!

Thank you so much, that’s very kind of you. Not being a writer, but a self-appointed grammar and spelling pedant, I rarely have anything to say apart from pointing out misplaced apostrophes, so this was a bit of a blast to write!

Thank you for your nice comment, Maria. I’ve had fun, I must say – and I’m still having it! And re charity volunteering, I really do feel that it’s better than therapy, for me anyway. I’m sure that therapy works very well for many people of course, but I’ve found that taking action helps more. And it’s good to stop thinking about yourself and help others, to make the world a tiny bit better for that day.

Wow, and I thought my life is full of adventures. I would have love to meet singers and tour with A-ha too!
Like you I also got fed up listening to all Norwegians around me after I got married that I read and read and watch Norwegian cartoons. Miraculously that speed up my Norwegian. Now my husband kept mumbling how much easier it was for him before to make a deal with people to prepare a surprise for me even if I was right there with them. Hahaha! 😀

Haha 😀 I actually didn’t think much about it. I was obsessed to learn my husband’s language and just realised one day that I understand them. But yes, I guess it wasn’t that hard to learn the basic, the hard part is after intermediate level.

I’m very well, thanks! I was halfway up a mountain on a bicycle when you and Bart both popped into my head. You were easy to track down from your photo – you don’t appear to have changed much in 30 years! Bart is proving more elusive; I’ll let you know when I find the blighter!

I’m still in touch with June Cook and Sue Sygrove, both from the Beach, but that’s pretty much it – I think! I left the business in ’92, did a teacher training course, taught for years and then ended up in education management in Hong Kong and Indonesia.

I’m the WORST sort of writing expert, huahahahahaha! Well, no, we provide business English writing programmes by email, mostly to Indonesians. We’re often asked to do proofreading, but it invariably turns out to be (quite heavy!) editing – annual reports, website copy, advertising etc.

It’s great to be in touch after such a long time, Julia – I hope you’re well and happy and that life has given you everything you could have hoped for.